Archive for the ‘social impairments’ Category

All individuals with autism spectrum disorder will have social impairments or lack the theory of mind, which means they will lack the ability to “mind read”, understand body language and facial expression.As typically developing beings we take these skills for granted.

Generally social impairments become apparent early in childhood and continue through to adulthood.

For children on the autism spectrum having a distinct lack of social skills can mean social interactions are difficult. They will almost certainly be less likely to approach other children spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, and still not grasp the concept of turn taking.

Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for children with ASD social development is not learnt naturally.

Children on the autism spectrum like typically developing children do need friends…and as a parent or teacher of an autistic child there are ways in which you can help them understand the importance of social development and friendships.

Parents can help their child with autism learn skills such as making friends, sharing and taking turns etc. using autistic social stories.

Autism social stories are a strategy used to explain social and communication skills, by answering the important “wh” question who, where, why, when and what as well as giving an insight into the thoughts and feelings of others.

Autism social stories tend to be visual; this is because children with ASD are generally visual thinkers and learners, meaning they think in pictures which makes autistic social stories an ideal strategy.

Helping autism social development using autistic social stories is beneficial. Autistic social stories are written in the first person, using appropriate language and images in a manner the child with autism can understand. Images are a powerful means of communication which are understood by all, this concept if followed with autistic social stories.

The social story is a visual plan or framework much like a comic strip conversation which can act as a role model for the child with autism, helping them understand the skill or behavior that they are struggling with.

Autism social development using autistic social stories will show your autistic child in a clear helpful manner how, why, where and when they should do something. They will give the appropriate responses the autistic child may expect and also the responses they themselves should expect from others.

Studies show children with ASD respond well to printable autism social stories, with marked improvements in social understanding and behaviors.

To obtain printable autism social stories which you can download and use visit

It is important to remember it is more useful to put strategies in place to help prevent inappropriate behaviours before they happen than to try and deal with the behaviour once it has occurred.

It is also important to remember that ALL behaviour displayed by kids with autism is for a reason an internal or external factor NEVER just because as with typically developing children.

Due to the triad of autistic impairments children with autism have a lack of social awareness, communication and imagination skills and behaviours.

It is therefore recommended that because of the triad of autistic impairments that any behaviour management for kids with autism is devised to help the child with ASD understand and cope with skills and behaviours that they struggle to understand and manage.

Help such as visual intervention strategies, which ARE used to help teach social awareness, communication and imagination skills and behaviours.

There are many different positive behaviour supports like visual intervention strategies such as: Social Skills Stories, Visual Social Story Cards, Flash Cards, PECS and so on…

Using Positive behaviour supports for ASD is beneficial.

For example positive behaviour supports for ASD can teach self-help skills, choice and decision making, routine changes, social awareness, communication skills and environmental changes as well as much more.

Probably one of the major strategies used is social skills stories – these are short descriptive pieces of text which can be used to help the child with ASD feel more comfortable with and in a situation.

Social Skills Stories use visual images to help explain a situation, skill, behaviour or event from the child’s own perspective. Typically kids with ASD are visual thinkers and learners; this means that they understand visual information easier than that which is written or spoken.

Noticeably kids with ASD have communication difficulties and find reading facial expressions and body language confusing, this is also due to their social impairments.

Having social impairments can make friendships difficult to build and maintain again positive behaviour supports for ASD can help alleviate this issue and help the child with autism develop friendships.

The social story will help answer the “wh” questions – who, what, why, when and where as well as “HOW” and will provide the child with autism an insight into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of others which is an area of marked weakness in most autistics.

The social story can act like a visual framework or plan of the skill being taught, it will focus on the key points or cues and suggest possible outcomes for the child with autism to follow.

To learn more about behaviour management for kids with autism and how social skills stories WILL help visit:

Autistic childrentend to prefer structure and routine, and can become stressed and anxious when things change.

Generally most autistic children are visual thinkers; Which means they think in pictures or images, and language is secondary.

Therefore when speaking try and make sentences short and precise do not give lengthy explanations and try to use visual images, graphs or pictures to help with your explanation or lesson. This way the child on the spectrum will be far more likely to understand what it is youâ€™re trying to put across or say.

Another thing to remember is not to string a long list of instructions together a child on the spectrum may have problems remembering this.

The thing to remember here is that autistic children are visual thinkers and a long verbal list will be easily forgotten. Break the list up into smaller more easily managed chunks and wherever possible add visual clues, like pictures and images this is easier to remember.

So for example when teaching a child on the spectrum about feelings, parents, teachers and care givers can achieve far better results by using visual strategies such as printable social stories for kids with autism.

Typically developing children can read facial expression and body language and are able to interpret thoughts, feelings, emotions and language that the child on the spectrum can not. Having autism will affect the way the child processes information, thinks and acts this is called social impairments.

Autistic childrenhave social impairments and will not be able to understand facial expressions, body language and communication both verbal and non-verbal. A child with autism will speak literally and say exactly what they mean or see, so donâ€™t be offended by their sometimes abrupt and seemingly rude observations at times.

Using printable autism social stories for kids with autism is a good meanâ€™s of explaining feelings toÂ a child with autism, by giving them visual cues on what is expected from them, and what they can expect in certain situations.

For example â€œnick namesâ€ children with autism may have difficulties understanding why we have pet names for each other, or why their friends may call each other odd names! Printable autism social storiesfor kids with autism can act as means of explaining this a bit like a role model, helping the autistic child understand why people use nick names.

There are many different social situations and tasks a normally developing child will accomplish easily.

But for children with autism can be stressful and cause anxiety, this is where social stories can help by explaining the â€œwhâ€ questions â€“ who, where, why, when and what as well as â€œhowâ€ and giving an insight into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of others all helping the child on the spectrum feel more comfortable. Social stories are intervention strategies that are generally visual, written in first person text and always from the point of view of the autistic child.

Social stories can be used for transitions, changes to routines, learning new skills, coping with hygiene issues and helping to pave the way to positive behaviours.

All children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have social impairments this is common to autism. It is these social impairments that cause social and communication difficulties in children with Autism.

Even though all autistic individuals have social impairments the level of disability and the combination of symptoms will vary from person to person.

For many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder understanding language is also problematic.

For example: kids with autism display communication difficulties such as; misunderstanding simple directions or questions and may take what is said too literally, like metaphors, humour, sarcasm, irony and other figures of speech (such as “wait a minute”) can all be confusing.

Due to social impairments sometimes kids with autism can come across as rude or aloof. But while they may appear emotionally flat, the reality is that the autistic child is far from unfeeling. What may appear like indifference or insensitivity is actually due to social impairments in the autistic child, the inability to see things as other people do.

However there are treatments of autism which address social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder such as visual support cards and social stories.

Probably one of the major treatments of autism available is social skills stories, used widely by parents, care givers teachers and other professionals as a positive Intervention strategy excellent for addressing social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Social Skills Stories are an Intervention strategy which can be implemented and used for situations such as changes to routines, transitions, learning new skills and pave the way for positive behavioursâ€¦

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Social skills stories are treatments of autism that are easy to implement and need no formal training to use, they can be downloaded from the internet or provided by your childâ€™s OT, speech therapist and sometimes school.

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A social skills story provides the child with a step by step visual plan a role model answering the key â€œwhâ€ questions â€“ who, where, why, when and what as well as â€œHOWâ€ and give an insight into the thoughts and feelings of others. A social skills story will give the key points, allowing the autistic child a chance to rehearse the skill or behaviour they are struggling with. Which will make the autistic child feel more comfortable with and in the situation they are struggling with, thus reducing stress.

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To find out more about social skills stories for addressing social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder visit:http://www.autismsocialstories.com

Research indicates that social impairments ARE a common symptom of autism, and that all individuals with autism will have social impairments of varying degrees dependant on their own personal level of ability.

Commonly, all children with ASD struggle with social skills and need direct teaching using Intervention Strategies designed specifically for this.

Typically developing children learn social skills and behaviours naturally through watching and copying their peers and parents and directly from their environment etc.

Children with ASD need social skills teaching; they will not naturally mimic or interpret and learn social or communication skills. A child with an ASD will have difficulties following instruction unless the instruction or information is presented in a manner which they can readily understand.

We know that the vast majority of children with ASD are in-fact VISUAL THINKERS AND LEARNERS. This means that they think in pictures a bit like a movie script playing, and will not easily understand information that is written or spoken.

Consequently, appropriate Intervention Strategies ARE needed which ARE visual, such as PECS, Flash cards and social stories.

Unlike typically developing children a child with an ASD will not readily accept changes or transition and can become stressed and overwhelmed by tasks, skills and activities the rest of us think of as “everyday” or “normal”, like for example brushing your teeth, visiting a dentist, getting a haircut, recess, respecting personal space, making friends and so on.

Social Stories ARE perfect Intervention Strategies which were first introduced by therapist Carol Gray twenty years ago to help her communicate with the autistic children she was working with. Today Social Stories ARE used not only to HELP autistic children master communication skills both verbal and non-verbal but also to HELP children on the spectrum learn new skills, cope with changes to routines, transitions and encourage positive behaviours.

Social Stories USE visual images LIKE A VISUAL PLAN OR ROLE MODEL to describe a situation or skill in terms of relevant “social cues”, like a comic script conversation.

A social skills story is normally written in first person text and in a manner that children on the spectrum WILLBETTER understand.

Social stories break the skill down in to smaller sections the relevant “social cues” removing the fluff and un-necessary language, in a set formula of 4 main sentence types: Descriptive, Perspective, Directive and Control sentences.

Intervention Strategies such as a social skills story should answer the important “wh” questions – who, where, why, when and what as well as “HOW” and give an insight into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of those around them, which WILL HELP to reduce stress and confusion.

For example a social skills story written to help explain the need to brush your teeth would explain visually and with first person relevant text the “wh” questions why and how as well as what the consequence of not brushing would be – tooth ache etc. This story may start something like this:

It is important that I brush my teeth twice a day, I can brush them every morning and before I go to bed at night.

AND SO ON…

To learn more about HOW YOU CAN HELP Children with ASD need social skills teaching USING methods like social stories visit sites such as: http://www.autismsocialstories.com

For children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) lacking appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication skills is an issue. This lack or verbal and non-verbal communication skills is mainly due to the social impairments, often referred to as social skills deficits, which are a common symptom of autism.

There is no cure for autism spectrum disorder, but there are treatments of autism which can help overcome the hurdles thrown up by an individual’s social impairments. Although communication difficulties are a common symptom of autism, many parents struggle to find appropriate methods that will help their child learn verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

Social interactions can be difficult for children with ASD. Lacking the appropriate skill to be able to read another persons facial expression or body language can be a huge hurdle and undoubtedly lead to social misunderstandings.

All children with autism spectrum disorder experience difficulties with the appropriate use of language. For example they may have difficulties with intonation, rhythm, and word and sentence meaning.

Sometimes kids with ASD may mimic certain things for example scripts from the T.V like commercials, or shows that are of interest to them, they may repeat a line from a book, radio show or song and continually want to repeat this phrase.

Other kids with ASD may have phrases that they use in situations, for example some children with autism spectrum disorder may introduce themselves at the beginning of conversations, or introduce their parent each day at the start and end of school.

Many parents, care givers and teachers look for ways to teach conversational skill strategies to children with autism.

Research suggests that using social stories to teach conversational skill strategies to children with autism will help with their child’s communication issues.

Undoubtedly your first step will be to consult a speech and language pathologist to have your child’s communication skills evaluated.

Using social stories to teach conversational skill strategies to children withautismspectrum disorder has been proven to be successful. Social stories are short descriptive visual step by step plans that show in clear no frill detail the skill or behavior being mastered. So for example with communication difficulties a parent may introduce an appropriate social story showing the child with ASD how this can be achieved helping to make them more comfortable in and with the skill or situation.

To learn more about social stories and how they can be used to help children with ASD learn social and communication skills and behaviors effectively. Plus get immediate downloads visit:

ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is a neurological condition affecting an individuals social and communication development. ASD is characterized by the individual’s social impairments and ritualistic, obsessive behaviours.

A major issue in children with autism spectrum disorder is their communication difficulties, both verbal and nonverbal, these are common to ASD, and will affect how the ASD child interacts socially.

For an ASD child having communication difficulties can be stressful, often likened to being dropped in a foreign land with no conception of the language or customs.

Communication difficulties are common to ASD the child will have difficulties understanding verbal instruction and information, sarcasm, humour, wit and emotion etc. this lack of communication skill can often be misunderstood and may lead people to believe the child with ASD is rude or aloof.

The child with ASD may use words without attaching meaning to them. They may use echolalia, and have poor attention spans.

Many children with autism spectrum disorder will probably prefer to spend time alone rather than with others, will show little interest in making friends, and be less responsive to social cues such as eye contact or smiles.

Autistic individual’s social impairments can impact on how the child with autism will interact with others. Consequently, Autism Spectrum Disorder goals for interaction are based on the individuals strengths, which in most cases is visual.

Typically developing children learn social skills naturally through play, from their peers, parents and those around them. This ability is missing in children with autism spectrum disorder, making it necessary to teach social skills and social and communication skills directly.

Generally children with autism are visual thinkers and learners, which means visual information and instruction is far easier for them to understand. This concept is used in social stories which teach social skills and deal with communication difficulties.

Using visual supports like social skills stories for autism make autism spectrum disorder goals for interactions much easier. Parents of autistic children can determine which social interaction skills their child is finding difficult and an appropriate social skills story can be put in place to help them overcome this.

Many parents of autistic children use social skills stories to help teach social, communication, and imagination and interaction skills such as asking question, making friends, sharing, taking turns, respecting personal space and so on.

The social skills story is visually rich with short appropriate pieces of text set out in a specific format. Developed almost twenty years ago social skills stories are today one of the major autism tools used to help children with autism overcome social interaction and communication difficulties.

To find appropriate autism tools such as autism spectrum disorder goals for interactions social skills stories on topics like making friends, answering questions, appropriate touching and many more visit any of the following sites and gain immediate downloads:

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have social impairments these are common to autism; it is due to these social impairments that the autistic child may be unaware of the rules of social conduct, how to act in public or interactions. Even though all autistic individuals have social impairments the level of disability and the combination of symptoms will vary from person to person.

Having social impairments is common to autism and at times can leave the autistic child open to bullying especially at school.

For many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder understanding language can also cause problems.

Generally kids with autism that display communication difficulties will misunderstand simple directions or questions and may take what is said too literally. For example; metaphors, humour, sarcasm, irony and other figures of speech (such as “watch what you say”) can all be confusing.

Due to their social impairments sometimes kids with autism can come across as rude or aloof. But while they may appear emotionally flat, the reality is that autistic child is far from unfeeling. What may appear like indifference or insensitivity is actually due to social impairments, the inability to see things as other people do.

However using treatments of autism for addressing social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder will be beneficial.

There are many treatments of autism available with social skills stories being probably the most significant for addressing social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Social Skills Stories are used effectively by parents, teachers, care givers and other professionals to help improve and teach social, imagination and interaction skills and behaviours as well as addressing communication difficulties, in children with autism.

Social skills stories are treatments of autism that are easy to implement and need no formal training to use, they can be downloaded from the internet or provided by your child’s OT, speech therapist and sometimes school.

Social skills stories help overcome social impairments by addressing social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, by helping the child with autism learn appropriate social skills and behaviours.

The social skills story provides the child with a step by step visual plan detailing the key points or goals, allowing them a chance to rehearse the skill or behaviour they are struggling with. Which will make the child feel more comfortable with and in the situation they are struggling with and less likely to become stressed or agitated.

To find out more about social skills stories for addressing social and communication difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder visit: http://www.autismsocialstories.com